Phenological studies of bilatidhonia (eryngium foetidum l.) at different growth stages

Abstract

Abstract : The study was conducted at the Horticulture Research Field of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University (BSMRAU), Gazipur during November, 2006 to August 2007 under upland condition to observe the phonological characteristics of Bilatidhonia (Eryngium foetidum L.). Bilatidhonia plants are sciophilus (shade-loving), erect perennial herb, grow up to 90 cm when flowering. Plants 8-40 cm high form a basal rosette. Root is thin and spindle-shaped. Tap root with few branching, fusiform with fibrous roots. The main root length increased up to 21.8cm at 180 days after sowing (DAS). The stem is reduced, weak, green, solid and covered by leaf sheath, usually not visible before flowering in standing plant. An indeterminate umbel, crowded into dense heads surrounded by a whorl of rigid bracts. Inflorescence divaricately trifurcate; lateral branches often continuing to form a monochasium, heads numerous, short-pedunculate. Flowers are pentamerous, minute, greenish white; each flower is surrounded by a bract. Small flowers closely arranged in dense umbels, greenish calyx with white corolla, accent, appearing in April to December. Fruit small, globose head or ovoid-globose, 1.1-1.3 mm, covered with tubercles greenish in younger stage, mature to brown. Fruit appears in clusters of small green globes which mature to brown. Seeds surrounded with hairy coverings that hinder to observe its actual shape.